Increase Business Leads Using Social Media.

Jason Walker

Social Media

Posted on 8th May 2015 at 11:55.

‘Only estate agents and wedding photographers should use Pinterest and Instagram’.

How many of these myths have you heard, passed off as facts? Too many, I bet.

Yet the ease of use and global reach of social media makes it a vital segment of any marketing plan.

The major problem that small business owners have with social media is knowing which or in what combination to use them. Especially in B2B markets, whose content isn’t the easiest to create or get shared.

For one, it can help the content amplification process. We all acknowledge the fact that not every business has really interesting content, all the time. By using social media to announce and share content, it can help get B2B content and offers in front of the right eyes.

By attaching the right social media buttons to your blog, (you do have a blog, right?), and including a call-to-action to share, helpful content can go much further. Once quoted as the gasoline to the fire of the right content, social media can increase the reach of any business. For some businesses, this IS the only marketing they do.

If you feel these opportunities are only available to big brands with deep pockets, you’d be mistaken. Even the florist on the corner can have a Facebook presence, where they can notify prospects of new offers, ongoing discounts, and anything else they feel is relevant to their audience.

So, how do you start building business leads using social media?

Search and More has a whole toolkit for this, but we’ll give you some nuggets that you can implement today:

Get social and use user-generated platforms to find out what your prospects need solutions to. You can start by setting up Google alerts for your brand name, product name, and industry related terms in your locality.

But more detailed info can be acquired using Q-and-A sites to generate insights on what your customers want to know. Niche and general forums, sites like Reddit, Quora, even Yahoo Answers are full of people discussing your industry. Reddit has over 150 million unique visits alone, with 9500 active sub-reddits; a potential goldmine of customer insights.

These sites can be used for anything from customer and market research to generating leads and sales.

The business profile pages offered by social media platforms are often under-utilised by small business owners. While these platforms give ample room to showcase the business; there are still Facebook business pages that consist of only a business name and address.

Does your company have a LinkedIn page; is it a true reflection of your business?

Start by taking claiming your company page from LinkedIn; if you signed up with a company email address, then create a page for the company. Request administrator status and you can start optimising.

Start off with a clear logo, catchy headline, and a comprehensive but not keyword-stuffed company description. Use long-tail keywords in your description to increase chances of being found SEO-wise. Use this space to let your prospects know that your offer is just what they need, or at least get them interested!

Hosting giveaways on social media are an effective way to increase engagement and numbers of followers. Social platforms make it quite easy to give away stuff; people are there to be entertained, rewarding them represents a huge bonus. That’s why contests always amass a ton of entries.

However, to run a successful contest, you must:

Make the entry barrier low. Stick with a Like, or a Tweet equalling one entry. Anything more complex and you run the risk of prospects losing interest.

Ensure the rules of the giveaway are clear from the onset.

Be sure to promote your contest to as many people as possible, (use paid ads).

Remember, the more related the prize is to your target market, the better.

A successful giveaway will help spread brand awareness, build email leads, and even get customer insights.

So you have dazzled prospects with your expertise and hooked them with great copy. What next? You know you want the sale, the email address, and a chance to connect with them again. But do they?

You must tell them what to do next. A call-to-action shouldn’t only be used on sales pages. While this translates to different formats across platforms, it can be utilised in all communications.

Even on Twitter with its 140 character limit, by using a URL shortener, you can include a strong headline, a CTA and a link to the page. Facebook rolled out the ability to add a CTA button to your page. With options ranging from Sign Up, Contact Us, Book Now, to Watch Video, you can tell readers exactly what you want them to do next.

Other ways to quickly increase business leads include:

Using Paid ads to laser-target the prospects you can convert to buyers.

Use different types of content if you don’t know what your prospects will respond to best. Memes, word cloud images, and even gifs can help pass a message across.

Curate content that will help your visitors.

Always. Be. Converting.

That should be your mantra. Just because people come onto social media to be entertained, doesn’t mean you can’t interact with them. By offering something of value, you can quickly build an engaged fan base. What do you think?

If you want to learn more about generating leads with social media or want a bespoke campaign created, contact Search and More Ltd today.

It’s a very small aspect of what is a presence online largely made up of impactful individual elements. But your bio or ‘About’ snippet on social media platforms is a…

Full Name

Contact Number

Email AddressWe'll never share your email with anyone else.

Your Message

Search & More take your privacy seriously and will only process your personal data with your consent and in accordance with the terms stated in our Privacy Notice. If you consent to us collecting and processing your personal data, please complete tick below: -

I consent to you processing my personal data as detailed in your Privacy Notice

If you feel you should be winning more business online or you think your website looks a bit jaded give us a call on 0161 669 5544 the kettle is always on.

a testimonial or two…

I have worked with Search & more for the past few years and he has transformed our internet and social media presence. What was a dull web site is now a vibrant income producing asset which appears on the first page of Google. Just brilliant!

Website design is consistently growing and evolving. When it comes to the design of your own website, it is rather important to keep an eye on the current trends to…

Stockport website design and digital marketing agency Search and More can help you create, manage and optimise your digital marketing needs. Our range of services goes from brand and logo creation, responsive website design, internet marketing and search engine marketing through to social media and PPC management. As the name suggests more than just search.